Using virtual reality to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease | BBC News

Using virtual reality to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease | BBC News

These pen and paper dementia tests date back to the 1940s and is still one of the markers that may be used for diagnosis today with no single definitive way to confirm the disease a combination of different tests and investigations are usually carried out by health professionals researchers at University

College London are testing the possibility of using virtual reality to help with early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease before it reaches the severe stages of dementia so we know that in individuals with dementia diseases there’s two components there’s the biological component which might be detected by a blood test but there’s

Also the cognitive the thinking and the memory and the navigation component and that’s the problem we’re trying to solve is how do we complement new biological tests with really good cognitive tests that can detect it many years before dementia starts if you look at the Neuroscience of how the disease starts

In the brain it’s starts in the region that we think is responsible for our ability to navigate this also an incredible experience where you get completely immersed in a new environment and the way we’ve designed it is a really beautiful open field where you can see mountains you can see pine trees

So we’re trying to make it as much of a relaxing process as possible it’s time to go into the virtual world and then I’m going to be navigating my way around yes exactly from a starting point the user has to follow the cones and then information from the virtual landscape

Is removed moved and they need to find their way back to where they started from and this is the controller and you will only have to use the trigger button which is the one uh that one yeah Bic you are immersed in this virtual environment there’s the one I’m just

Going to walk towards the cliff and as soon as you reach you stop I need to remember this spot to come back to later well now go to two and three oh somewhere else what’s happening now so basically this time we kept all the uh ground information as you can

Notice but we removed completely all the distant landmarks okay so this is easier for distance but harder for direction exactly that’s great yeah you got it I think it was over here the tricky bits trying to get back to Cone one oh I’m quite close yeah well well relatively

Close maybe I’m not that close at all I’m in the right field I think might be as close as I am well I don’t know how I did but it seemed rather challenging and I’ve done a lot of VR before so I’m used to walking around in one of these headsets

I wonder how it would be for someone doing it for the first time for this purpose maybe it’ll be thoroughly immersive so it would do the job well or maybe it would be a bit distracting and make them feel a bit nervous I don’t know the test doesn’t discriminate based

On language or culture navigation is something that we all do we think that this is there a test that works across different cultures and regardless of Education language demographics but we haven’t tested those diverse populations who historically have always been slightly uh disenfranchised by standard testing and say well actually we can do

It we can apply this well and identifying you too we are seeing a potential turning point in Alzheimer’s detection though virtually E’s latest VR is also being trialed at the clinic of luciad Salada in Portugal in the hope that it will help detect cognitive diseases earlier in their tracks meanwhile researchers have been

Working on blood tests that could uncover the disease long before symptoms emerge and a global trial has confirmed that a new drug slows down cognitive decline this means that one day Alzheimer’s could become manageable for longer okay I’m in a field surrounded by Cliffs these are the first major breakthroughs that the scientific

Community seen in the past 20 years and although they are in their early stages it gives us hope that one day the impact of dementia may be lessened

Scientists are testing the possibility of using virtual reality (VR) to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease.

Pen and paper tests date back to the 1940s and are still one of the markers that may be used for diagnosis today.

With no single definitive way to confirm the disease, a combination of different tests and investigations are usually carried out by health professionals.

Researchers, at University College London, are testing if VR can help confirm an early diagnosis of the disease before it reaches the severe stages of dementia.

This video is from BBC Click, the BBC’s flagship technology programme.

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